Common Era = Common Bowl of Crap

One popular thing to do nowadays, at least in the sciences, is to replace the common phrase B.C. (before Christ) with BCE, that is, Before Common Era.

Help me not to throw up a little here. In an attempt to rid the calendar of Christ (you know, that mean, fascist monster from the Galilee) some people who know better and/or are frightened of this man have replaced him with a Common Era.

Now here is a question or two. What the heck is a Common Era? An era we all have in common? What was it before that, an Uncommon Era? What suddenly makes it "common"? Does this Common Era apply to all people everywhere on the planet, unlike that eurocentric BC? If not, why not? If so, how?

Face it. This is a ridiculously asinine attempt to push Christ out of the picture - again. When will it end? Someone has to grow up soon - before I self-ignite!

Common Era Advocates: It will be OK! You needn't panic! Using B.C. (or God forbid, A. D.) will not give you some social disease! Move along citizen, nothing to see here!

How to Lead Hundreds to Christ - Everyday.

I heard someone say a while ago that when he came back from Mississippi from helping Samaritan's Purse in their attempt to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina that someone asked him before asking anything else, "How many did you lead to Christ?"

Ahem. Tell me this isn't an intimidating question. What this person is saying is, "I don't really care what you did to help, or how many you helped, or about the sacrifice you made to do it all, I just want to know how many people you led in prayer to accept Christ."

He meekly answered, "None."

I think he should have answered "dozens" or "hundreds." I have a couple problems here that I think we should start dealing with.

We Christians in America have completely redefined what it means to lead people anywhere. Remember the phrase, "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink"? We can lead without forcing the last step!

We can lead someone to the throne by delivering the best apologetic for the faith, or answering their concerns, or comforting them, or rebuilding their home, or helping them load the case of water into their vans, but we can't make them fall on their knees.

The Holy Spirit causes all this change on the inside. We are privileged - profoundly privileged - to play even a small role in that. But it is He who calls them.

And we lead people to Him - or away - all day long in all sorts of ways. Our lives are signposts pointing the way. We are stepping stones on the path to Him. All of us followers of Jesus are leading people to Him all day long in all we say and do.

I pray that each day I am leading 100+ students to Christ. And another hundred on the freeway. And a couple at the drive-thru at Jack in the Box. I pray I am every day leading my family to Christ when I get home by how I act and react.

The list of how many people we are leading to Christ is endless. Let's focus on the leading.

Science and the Obvious

I'll write more on this later (I hope). Right now it's just a rant.

But when are the agnostic and nontheistic scientists gonna grow up a little and at least admit the possibility that there is an all-powerful God behind this universe? Crimaney! How much evidence does one need that this place is not a mistake?!

It's really frustrating reading all the horsepoop in the literature implying that everything - the universe, this planet, life, and humans - will all eventually be explained as the results of countless beneficial mistakes.

The Emperor has no clothes!!!!

Saddam's Execution

One positive spin on Saddam's execution. He has known for a while that he would be executed. It has been no secret. He has had plenty of time to get right with God, something he didn't afford his thousands of victims.

Steve

I haven't seen Steve since that last post, now more than a year later.

Steve, Cancer, and a Loving God

I just met a man named Steve. He has been sitting behind me in church off and on for the last couple months. He is an asian man with the biggest smile I think I have ever seen. He speaks in a hoarse whisper, and doesn't sing much beyond a gravel-throated attempt. But he always smiles.

Last week at church as I sat there before service waiting for it to begin I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked back. It was Steve.

I turned around and said hello and asked him how he was. He smiled that smile and said he was great. That was the end of it for a moment.

I looked forward again but felt a compelling urge to turn around and talk to him again, this time with a little more depth.

I asked him how he was really doing. He then proceeded to tell me about himself. He said he had cancer, throat and lung. Then he thanked Jesus for it. He must have been healed, I thought. I asked if he was. No, no, not at all, he answered.

Five years ago the doctors gave him six months to live. It was then that he gave his life to the LifeGiver. And he hasn't looked back. "I was a very, very bad man," said he, without going into detail. "It was the cancer that made me see Jesus."

But Steve is not healed. He has finished with all the chemotherapy and radiation therapy; there is nothing more medical science can do. When I patted his back I felt nothing but bone. But this man loves Jesus like few I have ever met.

I believe the Lord will give some people a horrible illness like cancer, but for a reason...

I don't pretend to know the reason behind every illness - or why some evil men live long lives while some children get cancer - I can speculate but I don't know. But we know the Lord is willing to do just about anything to wake somebody out of a spiritual coma.

And that includes giving the person some horrible disease like cancer.

An analogy might help here: If my child was carelessly walking into the path of an oncoming bus, I would not hesitate to yank or push my child put of the way. Might I break her arm? Yes. Might she break a rib falling to the ground? Yes. It will probably be a painful experience.

But, is she alive? Yes!

For some people drastic measures must be taken in order to wake them up to their spiritual condition, but, as strange as this sounds, I believe things like this happen because He loves us. It may be hard to see this if you or a loved one has some terminal illness - and I'm not saying that this is the reason he or she might be sick - but we have heard enough stories like Steve's, about how some people with terminal diseases actually thank God for them because they then, for the first time, seriously reflected on the meaning of Life.

And some give their lives to the Lord and are with Him now.

But they might not be with Him in eternity if the Lord had just watched them wander into the traffic.

Unless the Lord intervenes Steve will probably die of his disease. But he is a man at peace with God, and with others. His current mission while the Lord allows him to live is to tell others about the love of Jesus. This man who has suffered greatly at the hands of this terminal disease is telling everyone he can about the love of Jesus.

Steve hasn't been healed physically, but spiritually he is alive and well.

Acting My Age

I spend a lot of time with my students. Often I genuinely enjoy their company; their energy, their naivete, their... energy. In return I feel compelled to be an example of some sort of moral high road for them - a task which I too often fail at.

But recently I was accused of going through a "midlife crisis" because of the time I spent with them. Ahem. This needs to be addressed.

There is a clear difference between experiencing a "midlife crisis" and "never growing up," the phrase I prefer.

A midlife crisis might involve buying a red Corvette, coloring my hair, dressing with my pants down to my knees, my SpongeBob chonies in full view, leaving my wife for some younger woman. I don't. I won't.

I do not see myself as having gone into my 40's and then reverting back to my 20's because I didn't like what I saw in my 40's. I see myself as never having reached my forties in the first place, or at least what some people think is "reaching my forties." That's a big difference.

I just refuse to grow up, plain and simple. I refuse because no one has ever defined for me what "acting my age" is, or how I can do it. I don't like acting like anything, and since no one has defined it I have no idea what it means to do so. I just try and be myself.

If I like some sort of music like Switchfoot or Creed or P.O.D., I listen without thinking that people in their 40's "aren't supposed" to like them. If I want to get a tattoo, I don't think to myself "I can't do that, I'm 47!" I consider the consequences and I do it or not. If I enjoy the company of teenagers in my classes or club, I'll spend time with them without thinking that I'm almost a half century old and should be spending time with people my age instead.

When someone can define for me what "acting one's age" is, I'll consider doing it.

For now, though, if someone says I am not acting my age, it will fall on deaf ears. If instead I'm told that I am not being myself, I'll listen. That's a red flag. Am I changing for the worse? Call me on it! Am I falling away from the faith? I need help. Am I literally acting? I should stop.

But pleeeease don't accuse me of going through a midlife crisis because I enjoy the company of kids. They often drive me nuts but they keep me from falling into the rut of growing old and cranky just because that's what I'm "supposed to be doing" at my age.